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Families of Ky. Cop Killer Hurt Again

January 31, 2012
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Screenshot: WKYT

Monday marked a somber anniversary for families of the officers who were murdered by Ralph Baze in Powell County, Ky.

On Jan. 30, 1992, Baze shot shot and killed Powell County Deputy Arthur Briscoe, who had come to his cabin to arrest him for assaulting a police officer in Ohio. Baze also fatally shot Sheriff Steve Bennett, who arrived to provide back-up.

Baze was convicted and given the death penalty. In the years since, he has admitted to killed the two deputies and argued the shooting was in self defense.

Baze had been scheduled to die by lethal injection on Sept. 25, 2007, when the Kentucky Supreme Court granted a stay to hear a lawsuit filed by Baze and another inmate that the state's lethal cocktail of drugs constituted cruel and unusual punishment.

The U.S. Supreme Court agreed to hear the appeal, eventually confirming the Kentucky high court's ruling that the lethal cocktail didn't violate Baze's Eighth Amendment rights.

Today, Kentucky remains under a judge's order that stopped all executions, and lawmakers are considering an additional year-long moratorium to review the findings of a two-year study the American Bar Association conducted on the state's death penalty system.

"Every time something happens related to this issue of his execution, hurts every one of us all over again," Deputy Briscoe's son Dennis told WKYT. "It constantly hangs over my head that this hasn't happened yet, that his execution's not been carried out yet."

Comments (14)

Displaying 1 - 14 of 14

Bob@Az. @ 1/31/2012 5:21 PM

Ten damn years and this slimeball is still here? Please, somebody find out what sheepa-- judge ordered the stay and let EVERYBODY know what the judges name is. I'm all for making these idiots who pass the stays and/or let these dirtbags out on O.R. or low bail have to house the perps in their own homes when their recaptured. With their families and then watch the rapid change of feelings. This pos MURDERED two Officers and is kicking back on our dime while his gutter-garbage lawyer keeps delaying justice. Guess it's OK to kill a LEO in Kentucky.

Jim @ 1/31/2012 5:33 PM

If Judges in Kentucky are elected the voters should clean house,That is why the crime rate keeps increasing, Panty Waste Judges

mini28 @ 1/31/2012 5:45 PM

Screw this POS. I say the cocktail is too good for any murderer. He deserves the punishment that fits his crime like the others should.

RICHARD ISAACS @ 1/31/2012 6:25 PM

I BECAME A COP AT AGE 23. I AM NOW PUSHING 61 AND A LONG TIME RETIRED. I REALLY WANTED TO MAKE A DIFFERENCE. MAKE THE CITIES AND COUNTIES I WORKED PLACES PEOPLE COULD WALK SAFELY. IF I WERE TO SOMEHOW TURN 23 AGAIN LAW ENFORCEMENT IS THE LAST PROFESSION I WOULD PICK. I WAS NAIVE, I THOUGHT THE POLICE, COURTS AND GOV.T WANTED THE SAME THINGS I WANTED. I WAS WRONG. IT'S THE COPS VS. EVERYONE ELSE. I WOULD NOT DO IT AGAIN.

Ron @ 1/31/2012 9:06 PM

Voters must assume some responsibility for Politicians, Judges ETC.

Next time citizens what to feel good passing some liberal laws, they

might want to reflect back on this injustice done to families who have suffered enough!!!!

Greg @ 2/1/2012 5:47 AM

http://courts.ky.gov/

Here ya' go. Minton signed off on the KY Supreme Court Decision (5-2) and Shepard was the judge who weeps for cop killers. Pictures of both these people are on the webpage.

Steve @ 2/1/2012 6:19 AM

For starters, attorneys should not be allowed to make law...talking about a conflict of interest! Secondly, what makes these bleeding hearts think that going ahead with the sentence, by whatever means, is any more cruel than making the accused sit in a cell for 14 to 20+ years, in which time he may have even forgotten, for the most part, what he did and then decide to snuff him. When this country goes under, and it's heading that way fast, we'll be able to look back and see that low life, self serving attorneys, cowardly judges, and greedy lawmakers, were the root of the demise!

Janet @ 2/1/2012 7:43 AM

If it was a judge's or attorney's family that was killed, they might take a different approach to the situation. An eye for an eye!

Brandon @ 2/1/2012 8:12 AM

As a police officer in Kentucky, I am outraged at this. If, God forbid, I am killed in the line of duty, I would like to take comfort that the piece of trash that killed me would get what's coming to him, but articles like this do not give me such hope. My wife and son would not receive justice, just like the families of these 2 HEROS are not. I am all for a fair legal system, but he has been convicted by a jury of his peers, and according to this article, has admitted to killing the two men. Kill him and move on to the next death row inmate!!

Todd @ 2/1/2012 12:01 PM

The Justice System is sworn to uphold and protect the citizens of the Commonwealth. I somewhat understand not putting to death an individual where there is question of his guilt, but Baze not only admits to the double murders of the Powell County Sheriff and his Deputy (Brother-in-law).....but brags about it, all the while, Police Officers in Kentucky and the family's, wait...and wait...and wait...for Justice. When will it come? I was a Trooper when they brought the Powell County cruiser to KSP supply for storage, it was horrific...I will never get those brutal scenes out of my mind. If Judge Minton and Judge Shepard were the two people responding to Baze that day instead of Dep. Arthur Briscoe and Sheriff Steve Bennett.......Then we WOULD be putting him to death. Judges don't seem to think the lives of these two LEO were worth very much...I mean their two lives don't even add up to one admitted cop killers life.

L. M. Hawrylak @ 2/1/2012 12:01 PM

You consider 10 yrs a long time. How about cop killer Jamal that killed (actually executed) Philadelphia Police Officer Faulkner over 30 years ago and got stay after stay by liberal lawyers and was backed by the liberal hollywood A.H.'s and press. He was finally taken off of death row in PA and placed in the general population to serve a life sentence. We in Phila and Maureen Faulkner had to live with this farce if hystuce for over 30 yrs. What is wrong with the criminal justice system in this country? The death penality is absolutely what it means....death.

John @ 2/1/2012 12:57 PM

He should be executed in the same manner that his victims died. And I would volunteer my time to do it and I would supply the bullet.

Company Clerk @ 2/6/2012 10:27 AM

It Has Been 20 YEARS that this scum of the earth has been fed, housed, clothed and cared for by the Citizens of Kentucky! Hell, they even have to pay for his 'Legal Expenses'... How much do you think that has cost the Taxpaying Citizens of Kentucky?I used to think that Kentucky was a Common Sense State... Total cost of keeping this scum alive for 20 years, probably over a Million Dollars. They could have given the two families of the murdered officers the money instead.

Kenneth Lucey @ 11/5/2012 9:16 PM

Kentucky has fell to the bleeding hearts, judges are too into getting re elected to do the right thing-- but state general assembly is to carry most of the blame with the lame laws they past

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